The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 588: King Dong Meets Moore

Maria's delicate hand gently slid across the blueprints of the Daring-class cruiser, while her blue eyes squinted at the man leaning on the rosewood armchair: "Which set of blueprints do you want to take? The fake ones mixed with sand given by the British, or the real ones that Rinko got from the Palmer family?"

It turned out that the British had falsified the drawings of the Kokang-class cruiser that they transferred to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Navy Department!

Fortunately, Wang Yan and Rinko had long been prepared for this move by the British. In addition, Palmer Shipbuilding and Steel Co., Ltd. had signed a contract with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s Admiralty several months ago to open a joint venture shipyard in Shanghai. This was a major project stipulated in the Sino-British "Thirty Years Treaty", with a total planned investment of three million silver dollars, of which Palmer Company contributed technology and equipment, accounting for 49% of the shares. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom contributed land and cash, accounting for 51%.

With this project, Wang Yan and Rinzi had access to Palmer's technical staff, so they could recruit engineers and buy copies of the blueprints.

Luo Yaoguo said proudly: "Rinzi used the oil prophecy in Pennsylvania to coax the old man from the Palmer family into joining the True Covenant Sect - this was done beautifully."

Maria came close to Luo Yaoguo and whispered, "The old man from the Palmer family said that it is possible to build a ship using fake blueprints, but the steam pipes are prone to leaks and the transmission system is prone to failure. If things go wrong, it might become a pure wind-powered sailboat at sea."

"Doesn't the Eastern King love Britain's powerful ships and guns the most?" Luo Yaoguo smiled coldly, turned his head and said to Wang Yan: "Then give him the original English version, and send an engineer from Palmer Company to accompany him - remember to arrange a Japanese girl for that engineer to be his wife."

Wang Yan took the order and left. Luo Yaoguo then said to Liu Lichuan, "Bishop Liu, go back and prepare, and go to Korea with Maria. Inform King Yangdong of what happened in Java. Ask him if he supports the Java Heavenly Kingdom."

Seeing that Liu Lichuan also took the order and left, Maria then approached Luo Yaoguo and asked softly: "Your Highness, are you really not worried that the King of the East will really develop Korea and Japan and turn them into chains to lock the Kingdom of Heaven?"

Luo Yaoguo sneered: "Don't be afraid, as long as North Korea and Japan are developed by the True Contract Sect, they can't be dogs of you foreigners!"

Being messed up by the True Contract Sect is different from being treated like a dog! The former is a system similar to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, while the latter is integrated into the foreign system.
Thinking of this, Luo Yaoguo slapped Maria's buttocks hard. Maria frowned and looked at the "angel" with some resentment: "I am different from those people. I am yours. That Natalia is the one who is in Cao's camp but her heart is with Han!"

"Are you jealous?" Luo Yaoguo smiled and looked at Maria's watery blue eyes. "I am attracted by Natalia's bloodline. She has the potential to become the Russian empress. So she belongs to Russia in the final analysis! And you belong only to me! Go quickly and come back soon. When you come back from North Korea, accompany me to Sichuan again!"

"Sichuan?" Maria was stunned again, "Your Highness is going to send troops to Sichuan?"

Luo Yaoguo smiled and nodded: "This year, Jiangnan, Huainan, Huaibei, Huguang and other places have good weather and good harvests. The wheat in Liaoning is also ripe. Finally, there is food to be harvested in Sichuan and Yunnan and Guizhou. The Jiangnan Pharmaceutical Factory in Shanghai needs the coptis root there. The British army and Shi Yiwang's troops who are suppressing the uprising in India will definitely need berberine. The E. coli there is more powerful than the muskets of the Indian rebels!"

At noon on July 1857, 7, on a ferry, Lee Jae-young, the Korean tax collector at Busan Customs, wiped the sweat from his forehead and pointed to the village on the other side with smoke rising from cooking fires: "That's Mapori, the model village where the King of Dong implemented the equal land order."

Following behind him were Bonham, Moore and his party.

They set out from Busan on June 6 and headed north by land, investigating as they went, and it took them half a month to reach the vicinity of Seoul. Along the way, they saw many poor but happy North Korean villages.

To be fair, these Korean villages are poorer than the Japanese villages they saw near Nagasaki. The dilemma of too many people and too little land is shared by China, Japan and North Korea. China is relatively better off because of its large territory, while Japan and North Korea are of the same quality.

Japan has been rich in gold, silver, and brass since ancient times, and can import goods from China, so it looks rich. North Korea, on the other hand, does not have many precious metals and cannot afford "Made in China," so it looks even poorer.

However, after the implementation of the land distribution and the overthrow of the two-class system, the poor in North Korea could finally stand up straight. Moreover, without the exploitation of land rent and usury, they had the first full meal in 500 years, and naturally they were "happy in poverty".

Moore also wiped off a lot of sweat and put on his glasses. He saw more than 20 farmers in linen shorts pedaling water wheels, their backs were tanned and shiny, their trouser legs were rolled up above the knees, revealing their lean but strong calf muscles.

Further away, the newly built water diversion channel is pumping clean water from the mountains into the paddy fields. Occasionally, a few peasant women wearing straw hats can be seen among the waves of early rice.

"Three years ago, all of this was private land owned by the yangban," Li Zairong said in a Liaodong accent. "After the King of Dong distributed the land to the farmers, grain production increased by 50%!"

"An increase of 50%?" Bai Siwen was a little skeptical. "Is it really that much?"

Li Zairong nodded: "Yes! The King of the East not only distributed fields to everyone, but also gave everyone iron farm tools and organized everyone to build water diversion channels." As he spoke, tears came down his face, "The King of the East's kindness is really not worth repaying."

This was not the first time the North Korean official had cried. Moore and Friedrich looked at Bai Siwen, as if asking, "Do all East Asian men cry so much?"

Bai Siwen shrugged and said in English: "The poor people in China are born rebellious, so bad that they don't appreciate the kindness of their masters!"

Li Zairong could also understand some English, and wiped his tears and said, "That's because you don't have a wise ruler like the Eastern King!" As he was talking, the ferry had already docked. When the boatman in straw sandals took the copper coins, Friedrich noticed that he had a cross hanging on his chest and a copy of "The True Covenant of the Eastern Palace" in his arms - this was the "True Covenant" published by Eastern King Yang Xiuqing in Korea, with his own portrait printed on the cover!

Under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, the 70-year-old village head Jin Wanfu was distributing maltose to the children. Seeing the foreigner coming, the old man trembled and took out a copper cross from his arms, and said in stiff Chinese: "God bless you!"

"Can you speak Chinese?" Bai Siwen looked at the old man's patched shorts with great interest.

"Thanks to the grace of the King of the East, the village has opened a night school, and I have learned a little bit." Old Man Jin pointed in the direction of the ancestral hall, where the sound of recitation could be faintly heard. "My grandson is reciting the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration in school. He is much stronger than my old bones."

In fact, Korean is a dialect of Chinese. At this time, the Korean writing system is exactly the same as Chinese. Many Korean scholars can speak some Chinese. Koreans with a little bit of intelligence can quickly learn Chinese.

Friedrich pointed with his cane at the rice that was about to be harvested in the distance and asked: "What percentage of the tax should be paid on this grain?"

"Thirty percent will go to the Holy Treasury, and the rest is ours." Old Man Jin wiped his tears and said, "The East King's kindness is really not enough!"

Bai Siwen suddenly sneered: "Luo Yaoguo can only receive 10% in China!"

Old man Jin glared at him and said, "That's because the people of the Celestial Empire are blessed. We are satisfied with having the King of the East. The King of the East is the most benevolent king of the Joseon Kingdom since Jizi!" As he said this, he wiped his tears again: "The King of the East's kindness is deeper than the sea and higher than the sky."

The next morning, the pungent smell of burning coke announced the presence of the Hanseong Iron Works ten miles in advance. When the morning sun climbed over Mount Gwanak, everyone finally saw the chimneys lined up by the river. The smoke from the ten smelting furnaces blended with the morning mist, dyeing the sky iron-gray.

"It can smelt 300 kilograms of wrought iron per hour." The Russian general manager Tupolev introduced in a hoarse voice. He was wearing a dragon robe given by the Eastern King over his greasy work clothes. "The reverberatory furnace can produce 40 tons of steel per month, enough to cast twelve 24-pound cannons!"

In the iron foundry, 200 craftsmen wearing thick linen work clothes, sweating from the heat, were operating crucibles. Ishii Tsuruyama, a master craftsman from Saga Domain, suddenly shouted, and 20 Japanese apprentices raised their tongs in unison - when the red-hot barrel blank was fed into the forging hammer, the flying sparks burned black spots on the linen clothes.

"How much do these Japanese workers earn per month?" Bai Siwen suddenly asked.

Tupolev's beard trembled. "Food and lodging are provided, and the monthly salary is one and a half Korean dollars - equivalent to three stone of brown rice in their hometown. The wages of a master carpenter are ten times higher!"

Bai Siwen smiled and asked, "How much is the monthly salary of the foreign craftsman?"

Tupolev laughed and said, "Of course there are several times more than the Japanese masters!"

Bai Siwen asked again: "Where does the coal and iron ore for the Seoul Iron Works come from? Can the iron and coal mines in North Korea provide enough?"

Tupolev shook his head: "Not yet. North Korea's mines are all in the mountains and require a lot of money to develop! So now the coal and iron ore of the Seoul Iron Works are all shipped from China."

Bai Siwen chuckled: "They are all shipped from China, and they use expensive craftsmen. Your Seoul Ironworks should have a hard time making money, right?"

Tupolev did not hide it from him and nodded, saying, "It's true that we don't make much money."

Bai Siwen asked with a smile: "If I remember correctly, the Eastern King has 100,000 Taiping soldiers under his command, and 200,000 families. How much does it cost to support these people every year? Can the more than 10 million farmers in Korea afford it?"

"That" Tupolev could not answer.

Moore and Friedrich cast a "skeptical" look at him.

Suddenly, a bell rang in the cannon casting workshop. Twenty Korean workers pushed a cart used to transport cannons out of the workshop. The newly cast smoothbore cannons were still steaming. Yang Xiuqing appeared on the second floor of the workshop without knowing when. His one eye swept through the foreigners who came to visit below, and finally his eyes fell on the short bearded foreigner next to Bai Siwen. Next to him stood Daozi and the blonde Maria.

Maria pointed at Moore and said, "King Dong, that man... I have seen him in the Tongtian Mirror! His name is Karl..."

(End of this chapter)